I am all about the flat shoe life! I recently had a major shoe clean out and realized I almost never wear heels anymore. I have a few heels that are on the lower side and I do wear those but for day to day, you can’t beat flats. Especially pretty, retro, vintagey, rockabilly, colourful ones! So I decided to hit the shops and find a few fancy flats to put in my newly cleared shoe closet. I wanted something fun and cute but I couldn’t find anything I really loved (except these, I want them in every colour! But the exchange rate is ugh and right now budget does not allow for these kinds of fripperies). So of course I thought I’d DIY something!
I love the idea of DIY shoes because shoes are not something you can really make easily and the idea that I can personalize a shoe makes me happy on the inside! It’s not my first shoe DIY foray, I made some whipped cream with a cherry on top shoes as a guest post for my friend Kara over at The Dressed Aesthetic and I styled up some sneakers for Indie Love Magazine. Both projects turned out wonderfully and have been worn often. In fact the sneakers saw so much wear last winter, I reproduced both of them on new sneakers for this year. I am super excited to add these two new DIY shoes to my collection! Both are super quick and easy, only one requires sewing and I know you will want to give them a try.
While out prowling the shops for new flats, I saw a cute pair of flats ($10 from Kmart) with a scallop cut out detail and immediately knew I wanted to thread a ribbon through the cut outs! I was thinking of these Demonia Daisy flats I’d seen on Tragic Beautiful but were sold out. Please excuse the fur, the cats just do that to things. I wanted play with the ribbon size and I considered a big, oversized bow too. I love that you can just thread the ribbon through and decide what you like before committing.
In the end I went with 6mm wide red ribbon. I decided where I wanted my bow and started at that point, leaving a tail of ribbon for a bow. If you are using a synthetic ribbon like me, it helps to run a flame close to the cut edge of the ribbon (or hit it with some fray check and allow to dry) before threading the ribbon. The firm edge helps you to poke the ribbon though the holes and stops it from unraveling. I went in one hole and out the next until I met up with my other ribbon.
I skipped one hole at the end, so both of my ribbon tails were to the front and tied it a neat bow. Once I had trimmed the ribbon, I sealed the ends again. I love that this is totally removable! If you had an outfit that was hard to match you could thread in a coordinating ribbon for happy matchy matchy !
I had a pair of basic ballet flats I bought as a backup for the whipped cream shoes project. They were $7 from Big W (very similar for $4!) and have a faux suede texture that was ‘sewable’ – not to hard or thick to get a needle through. I thought they would be prefect for the ballet lacing style shoes that are popular at the moment. My Mum was a serious ballet girl and I’ve always loved that timeless look. Very Dita Von Teese doing casual. I wanted to keep things simple with these, not too much fuss at the ankle. I have owned many pairs of shoes that tie at the ankle or calf and it has always been a disaster. Curvy calf and skinny ankle combo means everything slides down or has to be tied so tightly that I end up looking like a rolled roast. Not so pretty.
Elastic was the answer! I use fold over elastic or F.O.E in lots of sewing and craft projects (like this shrug and these hair ties), so I had several to choose from. You can get black, white and nude in Spotlight but eBay has a huge selection of colours and patterns. It was actually hard to narrow it down to just one elastic but blingy gold polka dots won my heart. With the shoes on, I positioned the foldover elastic so that it wrapped around my ankle. I used safety pins to keep the position and made sure I could get them on and off easily.
I tested a few of my hand sewing needles to find the one that pushed through the shoes the easiest. I threaded the needle with matching thread and secured the two cut ends of the elastic to the shoe. I stitched along the top edge of the shoe, through the elastic and tacked around the elastic that was inside of the shoe, before securing with a couple of knots. It can be a bit confusing, because you will have a twist in your elastic (where it crosses and wraps your ankle) so be sure you have everything in the right spot before sewing! If you need some help with your hand sewing, this should help you out.
And there you have it! Two fancy pairs of flats for next to nothing and made in minutes flat! Both styles just add that fun and interest to a boring black ballet flat. I love how these turned out and how crazy simple they were to make. I’m wondering if I need to max out the ballet vibe and buy some blush flats and sew on that sparkly silver elastic. Or maybe pick up another pair of cut out flats, some rainbow ribbon (like in this project) and gold bow (or even a tiny horn, made like these dog unicorn costumes) for some unicorn vibes? I have a zillion ideas zinging around my mind right now! I have a few more shoe DIY’s in mind, so keep your eyes peeled. As always, if you make your own version of these, I’d love to see it, so please send me pics xxxx
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2 Comments
Decided your middle name are Imaginata & Kan-do. Shoes look smashing
Haha! I love it and will adopt these as my new middle names – much better than Jane! I have been wearing the shoes all round the town and have even more shoe DIY’s in mind. Stay tuned….